This post is Day 23 in a series of studies about “Hope”. I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

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Hope – Day 23

Most of us, reading this today, can look back on life and think of things we have hoped for that have not happened. Our disappointments affect our future faith. We say to ourselves: God did not do that when I asked Him. How can I know He will do this?

Hebrews 11:1-2

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.

The Thought

For some of us reading this today, there seems to be a big gap between hope and faith. Most of us can look back on life and think of things we have hoped for that haven’t happened. Our disappointments affect our future faith. We say to ourselves “God didn’t do that when I asked Him. How can I know He will do this?”

The answer is that we can’t know He will do anything, unless He has promised us specifically, and even then it is easy to misunderstand what He is saying. What follows in Hebrews 11, (often referred to as the faith chapter), is a long list of people who had faith for specific things. Many of those people experienced what they had hoped for, but many didn’t, except through the eyes of faith for the future. Verse 13 tells us All these people were still living in faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.

Action

Ask yourself today what it is that you are hoping for this year. Be specific as you pray into those things. It is easy to say “Save the world Lord”, and we forget that He has already done that. Christ died once for all (Romans 6:10-11)!

Read Hebrews 11 and be reminded of some of those heroes of faith who have gone before us, playing their part in world history.

Rejoice that God has chosen you to be in that “Hall of fame” too. Write a list of what you would like the Lord to do for you and those you care for, remembering the verse for today.

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